Technical Field
The present invention relates to aggregation and utilization of repurposed data related to contracts, and in particular, to performing calculations related to lease transactions and the associated lease analysis, lease accounting, lease administration, and market data comparisons.
Background Art
Historically, lease accounting was a relatively simple process. However, new lease accounting standards are far from simple, and transitioning to new standards is costly and time consuming. A recent 2012 study commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Building Owners & Managers Association International and several commercial real estate industry groups (available at http://www.centerforcapitalmarkets.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/2012-02-08-IASB-FASB-CA-Report-FINAL-v-3-_2_.pdf), reported the cost for companies to implement new lease accounting standards from Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) and the International Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”) could run into the millions of dollars, and some companies projected their implementation costs would reach $50 million. Another recent 2011 survey commissioned by Deloitte (available at http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_fas_lasr_021411.PDF revealed 93% of commercial real estate tenants did not believe they were very well prepared to make the transition, 65% were not confident in the integrity of their existing lease data and 80% did not believe their technical support (IT) providers and/or departments could help them effectively and efficiently comply. In other words, companies expect a need for significant help in making transitions to new rule sets because companies lack the necessary tools, technology, knowledge, and in-house labor availability for compliance.
There also exists a need for techniques that allow for automatic incorporation and repurposing of market data from third-parties (e.g., other companies, brokers, and advisors). Existing solutions for acquiring market data involve manual entry of database information which is inefficient and prone to error. Further, existing solutions do not allow for repurposing of the vast amount of third-party market data that could be available through the implementation of an efficient, repurposing system.